LANSING — The Lansing Board of Water & Light plans to build a $500 million natural gas-fired power plant at the site of the coal-fired Erickson Power Plant in Delta Township, part of its drive to reduce the city's dependence on coal.

Construction of the new plant will create 1,200 temporary jobs. The project is expected to conclude by 2021.

BWL General Manager Dick Peffley said the utility reviewed more than half a dozen possible locations for the 250-megawatt gas-fired plant before deciding on the Erickson site.

“It’s just more cost-effective to be able to reuse the infrastructure we already have,” Peffley said.

The elimination of Lansing's two remaining coal-powered plants will reduce the city's carbon emissions by 80%, according to the BWL.

“To be coal free by 2025 is amazing," said Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero at a Monday morning press conference announcing the project. “At a time when we have wildfires raging out of control in California, when we have climate-change deniers in power in Washington, we have a local public utility embracing an environmentally sustainable future.”

Even after the plants close, some of the power sold by BWL will come from coal for at least a few more years. The utility still has a purchase agreement with the Detroit Edison Company's coal-fired Belle River Plant near St. Clair.

BWL's promise to be 100% coal free by 2025 refers only to coal burned by city-owned plants and not to energy purchased from other sources, BWL spokesman Steve Serkaian said.

Lansing's Board of Water & Light has provided this architect's rendering of a $500 million natural gas-fired power plant to be built at the site of the coal-fired Erickson Power Plant in Delta Township by 2021.(Photo: Lansing Board of Water & Light)

The Sierra Club praised the BWL's plans to reduce coal usage, but was critical of the decision to replace the Erickson plant with natural gas instead of wind or solar energy.

"A long term investment in fossil fuels may not be a good path to Lansing’s energy future," Andrew Sarpolis, organizer of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, said in a statement. "Renewable energy is possible and often times cheaper than fracked gas, and has led to the wave of wind and solar projects across Michigan."

Also on Monday, BWL announced plans to relocate its five-building Penn-Hazel Complex, which houses its line, water, fleet and maintenance departments. BWL says the existing facility, on about five acres off Pennsylvania Avenue south of Interstate 496, is outdated and located in a flood zone.

Contingent on negotiation and site review, those operations will be moved to the former site of the General Motor's Fisher Body plant on Lansing’s west side.

The 50-acre site south of West Saginaw Street and west of Verlinden Avenue is now owned by RACER Trust. Serkaian says it's uncertain how much of the site the utility will use.

The hope is to break ground on a new complex in 2020 and complete the move the following year. The cost to relocate is not yet known, Serkaian said.

BWL has committed to 30% "clean energy" by the end of 2020 and 40% "clean energy" by 2030.

“People in Lansing, they want reliable power, they want green and efficient power," said Mayor-elect Andy Schor, "and the board has heard it.”